When it comes to automating LinkedIn and social media outreach, the right tool can accelerate your results without sacrificing personalization or account safety. PhantomBuster and Expandi have emerged as leading platforms, each with unique strengths in workflow flexibility, multi-channel reach, and user experience. 

What is PhantomBuster?

PhantomBuster is a cloud-based automation platform tailored for businesses that want to streamline social media data extraction and outreach workflows across multiple channels including LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It operates through “Phantoms” — specialized bots that perform distinct automation tasks like scraping LinkedIn profiles, sending connection requests, or extracting contact details from websites. Users can link these Phantoms into complex multi-step workflows called “Workflows,” enabling tailored lead generation, engagement, and CRM syncing.

PhantomBuster’s strength lies in its multi-channel versatility and extensive customization options, though it requires some initial setup and experimentation to unlock its full potential. It also integrates directly with HubSpot for automated CRM enrichment.

What is Expandi?

Expandi is a LinkedIn-focused automation platform designed for sales teams and agencies who want to run safe, human-like outreach at scale. The platform combines LinkedIn connection requests and messaging with email follow-ups in multichannel campaigns. Expandi emphasizes account safety through features like LinkedIn profile warm-up, smart limit controls, and campaign throttling designed to mimic natural usage patterns and avoid platform restrictions.

Expandi’s user interface prioritizes ease of use with guided onboarding, dynamic message personalization (including images and GIFs), and advanced team collaboration features such as role management and white-label support. It integrates with other sales tools mainly via Zapier.

Feature Comparison

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Pricing Analysis

• PhantomBuster Pricing:

  
  

  • Free Trial: 14 days, 2 hours execution time, 5 Phantom slots, 50 email credits.

  • Starter: $56/month (annual billing), 20 hours/month execution, 5 Phantom slots, 10,000 AI credits, 500 email credits.

  • Pro: $128/month (annual), 80 hours/month execution, 15 Phantom slots, 30,000 AI credits, 2,500 email credits.

  • Team: $352/month (annual), 300 hours/month execution, 50 Phantom slots, 90,000 AI credits, 10,000 email credits.

    
    

• Expandi Pricing:

  
  

  • Business Plan: $99/month per seat with unlimited campaigns, LinkedIn + email, campaign triggers, IP warm-ups.

  • Agency Plan: Custom pricing for 10+ seats, includes role management, white-label, dedicated support.

Detailed Feature Analysis: How PhantomBuster and Expandi Compare

• Automation Scope:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Supports broad multi-channel automation across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even Reddit. It empowers teams targeting multiple social platforms to automate data extraction, lead enrichment, and outreach workflows all from one platform.
    
    

  • Expandi: Specializes in LinkedIn combined with email outreach. Its primary focus is on social selling within LinkedIn, offering a tightly integrated, safe, multi-channel approach but with less scope outside LinkedIn.
    
    

• Workflow Flexibility:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Utilizes “Phantoms” (individual automation bots) that can be chained into complex multi-step “Workflows.” This enables highly customizable sequences, combining scraping, enriching, messaging, and engagement into tailored automation pipelines. However, it requires time and technical skill to configure effectively.
    
    

  • Expandi: Offers pre-built campaign triggers and automated sequences designed for simplicity and ease of use. Workflows are linear and user-friendly, ideal for those who want to quickly launch personalized LinkedIn and email campaigns without deep setup.
    
    

• Account Safety:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Relies on randomized delays and manual configuration for compliance with LinkedIn’s rules. It lacks dedicated IP management or automated profile warming, so users must monitor activity to reduce ban risk.
    
    

  • Expandi: Excels in built-in safety features tailored to LinkedIn’s algorithms including automatic profile warm-up, smart limit and throttle controls, and dedicated IPs by region. These features make Expandi a safer bet for long-term scaling.
    
    

• Team & Collaboration Features:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Offers limited team functionality, more suited to solo users or small teams. Collaboration features are minimal.
    
    

  • Expandi: Designed with teams and agencies in mind, boasting robust role-based permissions, team management, and white-label options, facilitating centralized control and reporting for multi-user workflows.
    
    

• Personalization Capabilities:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Supports deep customization through workflow design, enabling personalized messages and interactions based on rich data harvested in previous steps. Direct message personalization features are less built-in but highly flexible.
    
    

  • Expandi: Enables dynamic personalization within campaigns, supporting images, GIFs, and other rich media along with text variations. This makes messages more engaging and visually impactful without complex setup.
    
    

• Integrations & CRM Support:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Provides native integration with HubSpot and other CRMs like Salesforce and Pipedrive, enabling automatic syncing and enrichment of leads collected through automation.
    
    

  • Expandi: Integrates primarily via Zapier, allowing connections to a wide variety of CRMs and tools but requiring additional setup and third-party reliance.
    
    

• User Experience & Support:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Has a steeper learning curve, with a powerful but complex interface that rewards experimentation and technical understanding. AI-powered tools like GPT-driven message writers help reduce copywriting effort.
    
    

  • Expandi: Prioritizes user-friendliness with guided onboarding, intuitive UI, and a focus on reducing time-to-launch for campaigns. Ongoing support and educational resources enhance user adoption.
    
    

• Unique Added Features:
  
  

  • PhantomBuster: Excels in social media engagement automations, such as liking, commenting, and following, which can widen networking beyond outreach.
    
    

  • Expandi: Focuses on campaign management features like inbox prioritization, duplication prevention, and multi-channel follow-ups, streamlining lead nurturing and sales pipeline management.
    
    

Final Verdict: Which Platform is for Who?

• Choose PhantomBuster if:

  
  

  • You require automation across multiple social media platforms, not just LinkedIn.

  • You want deep customization in your lead workflows with multi-step automations.

  • You have the technical bandwidth to design and optimize complex sequences.

  • You prefer usage-based pricing tied to execution hours for scalable multi-channel campaigns.

    
    

• Choose Expandi if:

  
  

  • Your primary outreach channel is LinkedIn combined with email follow-ups.

  • You value an easy-to-use platform with built-in profile warming and safety controls.

  • You represent an agency or team needing role-based permissions and collaboration tools.

  • You want straightforward pricing with unlimited campaigns per seat.

Conclusion

PhantomBuster and Expandi both elevate outreach automation but serve different needs. PhantomBuster excels as a versatile, multi-channel engine suited for teams ready to customize extensively across platforms. Expandi shines as a LinkedIn-first, user-friendly tool built for safe, scalable campaigns and agency collaboration. Align your choice with your outreach channels, automation complexity, team structure, and budget to maximize sales and marketing impact.

If you’re interested in diving deeper into Expandi, start your exploration here to see how it can streamline your LinkedIn and email outreach. For those considering PhantomBuster, begin your journey here to unlock multi-channel automation and powerful workflow customizations.

Need guidance selecting or optimizing these tools? Our experts can simplify your decision and maximize your sales automation impact.

Contact us today!